Aston Villa will look to bounce back from defeat against Brighton & Hove Albion when they take on West Ham United at the London Stadium on Monday night.
West Ham will be looking to make it three Premier League wins in a row when they host Villa on Monday night. Back to back 1-0 wins over Sheffield United and Fulham respectively, saw the Hammers shoot up the Premier League table and sat in 8th prior to this matchday.
As previously mentioned Villa will be looking bounce back from that 2-1 defeat to Brighton last time out. Villa did win on their last visit to the capital when they beat Mikel Arteta's Arsenal 3-0 at the Emirates Stadium prior to the international break.
Team News
Forward Michail Antonio could return from his month long spell on the sidelines with a hamstring injury.
Ross Barkley is still out with a hamstring problem. Keinan Davies has returned to training along with Frederic Guilbert and Kourtney Hause. Wesley, Bjorn Engels and Tom Heaton remain out.
Predicted Line-ups
West Ham United: Fabianski, Balbuena, Ogbonna, Cresswellm Coufal, Rice, Soucek, Masuaku, Bowen, Fornals, Haller
Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Mings, Konsa, Targett, Luiz, McGinn, Trezeguet, Grealish, Traore, Watkins
View From The Dugouts
Hammers boss David Moyes had this to say on maintaining momentum this season in his pre-match press conference: saying: "I'm just hoping that we can continue our good form. I think we've been good at creating chances.
One of the big things was to try and improve defensively, keep clean sheets, and thankfully we're showing that side of our game as well. To score goals against Leicester, Wolves and Tottenham shows we've got that capability as well."
Villa manager Dean Smith had this to say on his side's form this season in his pre-match press conference: "I feel we’ve been pretty consistent all season.
“You look at results, and with the exception of the Leeds game, I thought Leeds were better than us on the day, we played a typical Leeds game and went toe-to-toe with them and they were better than us at that.
“I found the Southampton game a bit of a freak result with three set-pieces and a 25-yarder into the top corner, which very rarely happens.
“And then we’ve had the Brighton game, which is the one which has probably disappointed me the most without the ball.
“I thought we were dull and I said to the players I was disappointed. But there are mitigating factors, we couldn’t work with the team until the day before because people had been away on international duty but it’s the same for other teams."
Ones To Watch
In the absence of Antonio, we have to take a look at the main man upfront for the Hammers Sebastian Haller. Haller scored last time out against Sheffield United and got his side all three points. Haller's main strength is his aerial play and given how good West Ham are at getting balls into the box we could see Haller finally make good on that huge transfer fee he cost the club last summer. Haller's major issue is confidence and if is able to make it back to back goalscoring returns then we could see a new man heading into the festive period.
The obvious choice would be Jack Grealish, so maybe it is time another Villa man gets some attention and we have chosen Ollie Watkins. Scoring twice on his last visit to the capital, Watkins could prove to be influential in this game. His raw pace and his ability to be in the right spot for Villa are his major strengths. His positioning is a massive help to Grealish but Watkins is also great at linking up the play and holding onto the ball.
How To Watch
The game is available on Sky Sports Main Event with coverage starting at 7:30pm GMT
